Fullmetal Alchemist: The Abducted Alchemist
by Zangetsu50
Summary: (From the Light Novel) Train lines destroyed! Civilian anger mounts with every passing day, and the authorities seem powerless to catch the insurgents. Mustang alone sees a connection between the two crime sprees, but has a tough time proving it, until Ed and Al find themselves in the middle of the investigation-and the kidnapping, tool!
1. The Borderlands Trains

**A/N: OMG! MY HANDS HURT! Stayed up late so that I can at least have 1 chapter out. ****Started this around 11:40 pm and finished this at 2:50 am. Literally only took a 3 minute break. Ive never had to type that long. I consider myself a pretty fast typer so I didn't think it would take me so long. So exhausted, was tempted to break this into two parts but when I saw the chapter was almost finished I decided to push through it.**

**The light novel is not done in the usual manga style it is all words so everything you read in this story is word for word from the light novel. So I take no credit for what you read. All credit goes to Makoto Inoue and Hiromu Arakawa. The novel is 5 chapters long, so this story will only be five chapters.**

**I'm sorry for the long note at the bottom I have a poor habit of doing that. I just wanted to clear the air first about my absence and the reason behind why I am publishing this. This will be the only time I will have a long ass note. After this it will either be a small note or no note. ****Due to seeing how long it took me to type this, this will be a weekly update so that during the week I have enough time and breaks and not kill my hands trying to do it all in one day.**

**Please do drop a review though. It would help a lot to know if this was actually catching people's interests. I'm sadly the type that seriously needs motivation to get things done XD :(**

**Anyways onto the story!**

**Enjoy!**

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Fullmetal Alchemist: The Abducted Alchemist

"Aaaaaaaaaah."

A yawn erupted, great and sudden beneatg the lazy afternoon sun.

"Not here yet, Al?" Edward Elric called out to his brother, who stood a few feet in front of him. Edward sat atop his traveling trunk, which lay on its side of the cobblestones, with his chin in his hands and his elbows resting on his knees. He lifted a sleeve to wipe away the tears produced by the yawn.

"I'm afraid I don't see hide nor hair of it," his brother Alphonse replied. Alphonse stood looking down a set of rails that ran across the cobblestones at their feet.

Edward sighed, "The train-it was supposed to be here at noon, right?"

"Yup."

"Well?" Edward pointed to a clock hanging on a low post on the platform that passed for a station.

"It's always three. Do the trains not have to run on schedule out here in the boondocks or something?"

"Don't ask me," his brother replied. "It's my first time this far out too, you know. Maybe things just run late out here." He looked up at the clock. "Hours late."

Alphonse gazed off in the direction from which they had come. Off in the distance, a cluster of roofs popped out of the landscape, a fittingly tiny little hamlet for this middle-of-nowhere place. Alphonse and Edward had left the village to board the train. But where was the train?

Edward sighed again. "All this way, to leave empty-handed. And now we're stuck at this blasted station."

The station was little more than a line of cobblestones sitting out in a field. No roof, just a post with a clock and rails heading off into the distance.

"Can't things go right just once?" he muttered. He peered down the rails to where they faded in the distance. There was no train

Edward Elric was a short boy, skinny, with long golden-blond hair that he wore plaited in a braid. He seemed average enough at first glance, but closer inspection revealed an unusual history for someone so young. Several years before, he had broken an alchemical taboo-and paid for it with his right arm and his left leg. The auto-mail replacement limbs shone dully beneath his clothes. To recover what he had lost, he had joined the military and become a State Alchemist. Maybe because of this unusual career paths, he had a look to his eyes not found in many boys: a fierce determination that sparkled with a keen light.

His brother, Alphonse Elric-younger than Edward by a year-was also unusual for a boy his age, but on an entirely different scale. Alphonse tended to be soft-spoken and eager to make peace, in contrast to his passionate and all-too-frequently hotheaded brother, but you would never guess it from looking at him. He stood far taller than Edward and was clothed in a giant suit of armor. Inside the armor was nothing. No flesh or bone-just a single mark, written in blood, that tied the boy's soul to the walking suit of metal that took the place of his body.

The two brothers were on a journey to find the fabled Philosopher's Stone, the only alchemical artifact that might restore their original bodies. Two weeks before, they had heard a rumor of a strange stone found in the village far from Central. They had departed at once, hearts full of hope. The result of their findings was disappointing, as always, and now that they were trying to get home, they found themselves stuck. At a station. In the middle of the wilderness.

Every time the wind blew across the plains, a gust sent the dust up to dance in the hazy sunlight around them. Edward squinted his eyes in the dry air and looked up at the yellow sun hanging heavy in the sky. He picked up a pebble at his feet

"Guess we were wrong again," he said, tugging absentmindedly at one of the cobblestones until it rattled against its neighbors. Edward's eyes fell on his arms, then his gaze traveled along the ground until he was looking straight at his brother.

"I was kind of hoping we'd get our bodies back this time."

It seemed like he'd said the same thing a hundred times before, every time they'd followed some promising lead to find out it had all been a wild goose chase.

"But...we won't give up, will we?" Alphonse asked, as always.

"Course not," Edward said, standing up from his trunk. He stretched and turned a winning smile to his brother.

"We'll find that Philosopher's Stone, and we'll get you your body back."

"We will find it," Alphonse echoed, completing the ritual

Edward nodded, satisfied. On their long search for the Stone, they had developed a kind of code for dealing with the constant disappointment. This exchange was their signal to put this latest failure behind them and to start anew.

"Well now," Edward shouted out into the hazy afternoon air. "Where to next? I've got a mind to get on a train, catch some winks, and tuck into something tasty. Then, back to the search."

He threw up his arms as though to wave in some imaginary locomotive, and just then, far down the tracks, a real one appeared. The train that came chugging up to them seemed awfully full for a borderlands route like this.

"This train doesn't go through any big towns, does it?" Edward whispered as they stepped onto the train. "Just the countryside, right?"

He went to sit down and found to his dismay that all the seats were full. Shrugging, Edward joined Alphonse to stand by the doors.

"There go my plans of getting some sleep," he muttered.

"Maybe there's an empty seat farther down. Want to go look?" his brother asked.

"No, that's okay," Edward said, shaking his head. "If it's this full here, it's probably full all the way down."

Every sear in their car was taken. Some people stood in the aisle, talking and laughing with friends, playing cards on armrests. Edward's eyes passed over the people sharing their car.

"I've never seen this many people on a train this far out of Central," he said, noting their clothes and mannerisms. Everything looked a little too fancy, too clean for country folk on a country train. "Everyone sure is dressed nice for a day in the countryside."

"Yeah," Alphonse agreed. "Maybe there was a celebration somewhere?"

"Could be. Not that we'd know after spending two weeks in the bush. Maybe we can find a radio somewhere or pick up a newspaper in the next station," he wondered aloud. Suddenly, Edward's mouth snapped shut.

"What's wrong?" his brother asked looking down at him.

"Nothing," Edward said, scratching his neck the way he did whenever something was definitely wrong, "I just thought I heard a familiar voice."

Edward stood silently. The next time he heard it, he was certain. It was a voice he hadn't heard for a long time.

"Who?" Alphonse asked. "Whose voice?"

"Who?" Edward echoed. "Well, it sounds like the voice of one of those people that I owe a lot to and really wish I didn't. Where is he?" Edward craned his neck to see through the crowd of people in the car. Alphonse looked at the deep furrows on his brow. Whomever it was he had heard, it wasn't someone he particularly cared for-that much was clear.

"There he is," Edward said, his eyes fixing on a point farther down the car.

"Huh?" Alphonse turned to look for himself.

"Over there," Edward said, pointing out someone they both knew.

It was Colonel Roy Mustang, talking jovially with some women they had never seen before. Roy, like Edward was in the army-a State Alchemist. He was the chief officer of Eastern Command, a rank he had achieved in record time. A keen light shone in his black eyes, peering out from under a shock of black hair. But far from their usual wary, attentive look, those eyes looked relaxed now, even happy.

Just behind him, slightly taller, stood Jean Havoc, a second lieutenant at Eastern Command, with wavy blond hair. He stood off to one side, neither leading the conversation nor completely ignoring it, a typically bored look on his face.

Alphonse stood with his brother, silently watching Roy talk to the seated women. "He looks like he's having fun," Alphonse commented. "But what is the colonel doing on a backwater train like this? Some mission bring him out here?"

Edward shrugged and shook his head. "Who knows?"

Roy was too busy smiling and laughing with the women to notice the brothers' attention. It was odd. Roy's work directing Eastern Command kept him busy, and he rarely took jobs that brought him out into the countryside. There was something else, too. Both Roy and Havoc were wearing civilian clothes. If they were on a mission, they should be in their military uniforms. Edward and Alphonse stood quietly and picked up their ears to try and overhear the conversation.

"Still, it must be a bother going out, what with the trains running so late like this," their superior was saying. His voice, usually honed to razor sharpness for chewing out underlings, sounded disturbingly warm and mellow. The brothers looked at each other in astonishment.

"Oh, a bit," one of the women replied. "But we're not pressed for time, you see, to it's no real bother."

"We're just out to do some shopping in the big town," added another. "Do you travel for work, perhaps?"

From the sound of it, the women were rich young housewives out on a shopping expedition. Even from where they stood, the brothers could see they wore expensive looking clothes. Perhaps they had called out to Roy and engaged him in conversation. Now they were chatting up a storm.

Roy. Chatting.

"I'm just here to take care of some business," Roy said.

"Oh, I see," one of he women said. "I hope we're not troubling you."

"Not at all," Roy replied. "Nothing better than a little conversation to liven up an otherwise boring day of errands."

Roy smiled broadly. He wasn't bad looking, and the women certainly seemed to notice.

"I'm going to bet he'd not out here working at all," Edward decided, picking his trunk up from the floor.

"You going to go say hi?" his brother asked.

"Why not? Maybe he's got some juicy tidbits for us, anyway."

If the colonel was on business, Edward might have left him alone. But if he had the time to chat up these women, he had the time to divulge a little information to Edward. Edward took a step toward the back of the car, and Roy's eyes lifted for the first time.

They exchanged glances, and Roy's expression shifted from pleasure to surprise.

"Long time no see," Edward said, waving in greeting. It had been a long time since they'd last met. Edward expected a wave in response, but Roy abruptly turned and resumed speaking with the women. His look of surprise had disappeared.

"Huh?" _Maybe he didn't hear me, _thought Edward, and he began walking through the crowd toward his superior. Roy was still talking to the ladies. Edward overheard him saying something about a pretty clock tower he had seen in some town, and the splendid view from a station to the west.

As Edward approached through the crowded car, Roy's hand went down to the armrest of the chair in front of him, as though he were bracing himself against the rocking of the train. He placed it just so it was out of sight of the women he was talking to, yet in plain view of Edward.

One index finger slowly lifted and pointed directly at Edward. Roy kept talking to the women, smiling, without even a glance in Edward's direction. But the finger pointed straight-and unmistakably-at them.

_Huh? _Edward thought. Before his eyes, the colonel's finger wagged up and down as if to say: _Leave me alone. Go away. _

Edward finally got it. Behind him, he heard Alphonse chuckle.

Edward scowled. Here he was, exhausted after two weeks of crawling around in some dusty backwater chasing rumors of a Stone only to return empty-handed. What's more, he had to wait three hours at that stupid station for a train, and now that he'd caught one, it was so crowded he couldn't take a nap. Now, when he had found a familiar face against all odds, he was being told in no uncertain terms to buzz off?

The skin around Edward's temples twitched. "Ignore me, will you!" Edward muttered.

"Aww, you know they say the colonel likes the ladies," his brother said. "He just doesn't want competition." Alphonse looked at their superior, bathed in attention from the well-dressed ladies. He was obviously impressed.

"You don't mean to say that you're single!" one of the women exclaimed.

"Why, yes, I am," Roy replied, unbashedly.

"My! If I had a man like you, I wouldn't let you out of my sight."

"Then don't-at least, not until we reach our station," Roy said with a twinkle in his eye. "If we're stuck on this train anyway, we may as well make the best of it with a little light conversation."

It wasn't that Edward didn't understand. Men outnumbered women in the military by more than ten to one. He could see why the colonel might care for a little conversation with the fairer sex once in a while. But still...

"Wave me away with a finger, will you?" Edward growled under his breath.

"Ah, let him have his fun," Alphonse urged, "We can go say hi later.'

Edward scowled and began walking back to their original spot by the door when suddenly he stopped and whirled back around. He and Alphonse had just worked up the courage to dust themselves off and try again, and now this. Being ignored was just too much for him to take, and for what? So the colonel could enjoy a little "light conversation"? He had to say something.

"Al."

"What?"

"Watch this for me," Edward said, sliding his trunk over toward his brother.

"Sure," his brother replied hesitantly. "But why?"

"I'm going to go say hello. It's no fair that he gets to have all the fun."

"Huh? Weren't we just going to leave them alone? Hey, wait-"

Turning his back on his brother, Edward grinned and took a deep breath. Then, not wanting to look too mischievous, he put on a broad, fake smile and walked down the car, calling out "Dad!" Edward ran toward the colonel, shouting and waving like the long-lost son Roy never had.

"DAD?" Roy repeated incredulously. "Dad!?"

Roy glared at Edward, sitting on the seat across from him. Edward's ploy had worked brilliantly, and Roy, now suspected of being quite married, found himself booted from the conversation. "Wouldn't want there to be any _misunderstandings_," one of the women had said.

"I don't believe this." Roy said.

Edward persisted with his charade until Roy was forced to drag him, clinging to his arm, into the next car. As luck would have it, this one turned out to be much emptier than the last. Roy sat down in a vacant seat, glowering. "Man, first time I see you in how long has it been, and you pull this idiotic stunt?"

"It _has_ been a long time, and you wanted to wag me away with your finger? How rude!" Edward said, grinning. He stuck his tongue out at the colonel.

"He does have a weakness for the ladies," Havoc agreed from the seat next to Edward.

"Hey, they called out to me first," Roy replied hotly. "_To me. _ You saw what happened. You were there."

"Did they now?" Havoc wondered out loud.

"And here I was going to give you some pointers on how to talk to women."

"Oh," Havoc returned, an eyebrow raised. "You seemed much too engrossed in the conversation to worry about teaching me."

"I had to talk to them," his superior protested, "because you were just standing there in a daze!"

Knowing that, left to their own devices, these two go on like this for hours, Alphonse interrupted. "Um, so you two had work out here?"

As one, Roy and Havoc stopped their bickering and sighed deeply.

"Well, not here really," Roy explained. "We couldn't get on our scheduled train, so we had to make a little detour."

"Work all day, and then wait three hours for a train? It's ridiculous," Havoc added.

"Huh. Sounds like what happened to us," Edward said.

"Our train took forever to come. I wonder what's up? Maybe it's something with the scheduling."

Roy and Havoc stared at him. "What you haven't heard?"

Edward raised an eyebrow. So something had been happening in the news, and he'd missed it. "What? What do you mean?"

"We've been in the field for two weeks," Alphonse explained. "I mean _literally_ sleeping out in a field. We haven't heard anything."

There had been no inns in the town that Edward and Alphonse's search for the Philosopher's Stone had brought them to, so they had slept under the eaves of houses, and when their treasure hunt took them into the surrounding hills, they pitched a tent and slept wherever they happened to be when the sun went down. They had been completely cut off from the modern world, and that meant no news.

"What was that big thing going in the news before we left, Al?" Edward asked, trying to recall.

"Well," Alphonse began, "there was that munitions factory that exploded. People were saying it was a miracle that nobody was injured."

"Oh, right, that was it," Edward said. "We haven't listened to a radio since then."

"So you haven't heard any of what's been going on," Roy concluded, folding his hands in his lap. "In the last two weeks, train lines have been blowing up right and left. That's why the trains are all off schedule-they don't have rails to run on. They have to take all these detours on what's left," he explained. "Sometimes you're on a train and they have to take this wild detour. Why, this train came all the way out of Central!"

Edward and Alphonse looked at each other in disbelief. "From Central? All that way?" Edward said, aghast.

"That's why it's so crowded," his brother reasoned out loud.

"And then sometimes you go out on this huge detour only to come across another break in the line," Roy explained. "The military has donated horses and trucks to transport people in some places."

"Wow. Sounds like things are really a mess."

"Not only that. That explosion at the munitions factory wasn't the last one. People are saying it's terrorists. We've had seven incidents in the East Area alone. And no one's been caught," Roy grumbled, brushing a few stray hairs out of his eyes. He looked irritated. "Civilian agencies are suppose to help, but we're having trouble getting people to cooperate with out investigations. End result? We have practically no information. Blasted civilians," Roy swore. "Thanks to them, the criminal or criminals have got free run of the country. Our crime scenes are a mess, and all our superiors do is complain about us not doing_ our _job."

Edward put two and two together. "So," he asked, "you got called into Central? That's where you went?"

"You got it," the colonel replied. "We went down to get _encouraged_."

"I think the term is 'chewed out,'" Havoc told him. Many people in the military thought less of Roy because he had risen to the rank of colonel at such a young age-he was still in his twenties. This included some of his superiors, and so every time something went amiss at Eastern Command, Roy would be called down to Central to receive more "encouragement."

"Wait," Alphonse asked, "then why are you in civilian clothes?" He seemed genuinely perplexed. "You went to see the bigwigs, right? Shouldn't you be in uniform?"

Just then the train lurched, and the squealing of brakes sounded from outside the window.

"Whoa!" Edward had just leaned over to adjust the position of his traveling trunk beneath his feet when the brakes hit. The law of inertia got the better of him, and he went tumbling onto the floor of the train. Roy, Havoc, and Alphonse all reached out to grab him, all a moment too late.

The train car filled with screams and dislodged luggage. The train slowed rapidly, the brakes screeching and smoking.

Just then, Edward, who had managed to right himself, noticed something through the shivering windows. Someone was standing out in the field, some distance from the tracks. He could see the silhouette clearly, like a cut-out frame of stillness in a world filled with screeching metal, the screams of the passengers, and the clunk and rattle of their belongings. For a moment, the figure seemed so still in comparison to everything else around him that Edward thought it was a trick of the eye, some shadow cast by a standing stone or the like. But when Edward went to look away, he swore he saw the person smile.

"Huh?" he muttered out loud. Edward blinked and looked again, when the brakes squealed once more. The train came screeching and rattling to a halt.

"An emergency stop! I wonder what happened?" one of the passengers said.

"Is everything all right? We're still so far from the next station," said another.

"I wonder if it's another bombing," a man sitting near Edward whispered to his neighbor. Edward looked out the window again, but he could see nothing-only a wide, empty field of brown grass.

"What is it?"Roy said, noticing Edward staring out the window.

"Its nothing...I think,' Edward said, shaking his head.

"Anyone hurt?"

Edward decided he had just seen a shadow of some rock or tree. The train had been shaking so much from the emergency stop-there was no way he could a person that far out, let alone see them smile. Edward looked around the car. Roy was handing some fallen luggage to a passenger, while Havoc and Alphonse helped another passenger up off the floor of the car.

Most of the passengers had the sense to grab on to something when they heard the brakes. The train hadn't been going that fast to begin with, so there were no serious injuries. They had been lucky.

One of the train personnel ran outside the train calling word of what had happened through the windows.

"Explosion on the rails up ahead!" he shouted. "Another terrorist attack! Military facilities nearby! Passengers are asked either to wait for horse or buggies or walk back to the last station and wait for an emergency train that will take them back to Central."

The car filled with the sound of grumbling passengers.

"Not again."

"What's our military doing, anyway?"

"Sure, they might bring out the trucks and the horses to carry us from the station to station, but this is unacceptable! I hope they catch whoever's doing this soon!"

"Don't the terrorists send a warning before their attacks? And they still can't catch them! Our soldiers are just lazy, that's what it is."

Grumbling, the passengers stepped out of the train, some waiting for the horses to arrive, others beginning to walk back toward the last station.

"What's all this complaining about the military..." Edward muttered. "Hey, Colonel, is there something going on that I don't-" Havoc'c hand slapped over Edward's mouth mid-question. "-mow a howt?"

"No military titles," Havoc hissed, removing his hand.

"Huh?" Edward looked confused.

"I'll explain later. Just keep quiet," Havoc told him, his face uncharacteristically serious. Edward and Alphonse glanced at each other and kept quiet as they were told. Ahead, Roy had gotten off the train and was talking to one of the crewman. For the first time, Edward realized Roy were pretending to be a civilian.

"No one was injured?" he asked.

"No one," the crewman replied. "We expect aid to come shortly, and it should take only a day or so to fix the rails. The explosion was a smalll one."

"Good to hear," Roy said. "How far is it to the next station from here?"

"It's not un-walkable, but I think it would be faster to go back to the last station, mister."

"I see," their incognito superior replied with a frown.

"Thanks."

The crewman smoothed out his hair and put his cap back on with a sigh. "So many accidents these days. I hope the army gets its act together soon. Do they even want to catch these people?"

"No kidding," Roy said, waving to the disgruntled crewman and rejoining Edward and the others.

"I'm not going back to that station just to get sent on some other wild detour. I'm walking to the next station. What will you go?" he said, turning to the Elric brothers.

"If it's a choice between walking and another detour, I'm for walking," Edward said. "Al?"

"Are you sure it's all right?" Alphonse said, a worried look on his face. "I mean, I know it's out of our jurisdiction, but can we just leave this train here like this?"

"Well," Edward replied, "seeing as there weren't any injuries, I think the best thing we could would be to get back to Eastern Command as quickly as possible. Let's get going."

A few people also chose to walk in the same direction as Edward and the others, but most stayed to wait for the horses and buggies.

"What does our military think they're doing? What do we pay taxes for?!" they overheard one man say.

"How many days has it been with those terrorists running loose?" said another."The first soldier I see, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind!"

Edward walked, listening to the bitter complaints. He cast a sidelong glace at Roy and Havoc, who walked slightly ahead of him. They marched in silence, their faces drawn stiff into expressionless masks. They walked past the train as it sat frozen on the tracks, and after their group pulled ahead of the other passengers.

Roy spoke at last. "Glad we wore civilian clothes, eh?"

"Yeah," Edward agreed, looking back at the stopped train. Some of the passengers were taking their frustrations with the military out on their hapless luggage, kicking their bags and cursing.

"This isn't doing much for the military's reputation." Edward noted.

Roy frowned with his eyes. "Like I told you, these terrorists have been taking out rails all over the place for some time now. Only, there's something that doesn't quite make sense."

Edward thought a moment before turning a blank stare to his superior. "What?"

"Well," Roy explained, "for one, there usually aren't this many people on the trains the terrorists target. We had one incident after another, but all of them were small scale, usually in places without too many people. And we'd never had an injury. That's why people still ride the trains."

Edward nodded, thinking it over. "What I don't get," he said after a moment, "is why are people so mad at the military? Aren't the explosions the terrorists' fault?"

There was a brief moment of silence.

"There are warnings." Roy said at length. "They announce the attacks on the radio before they happen. But there's never enough time to get people on the scene before the deed is done," he explained. His voice sounded tired.

"Not that the civilians pay much attention to that. Luckily, there haven't been any injuries, but the train stoppages are throwing everyone's lives out of whack. The terrorists are polite enough to warn us when they're coming, so why can't the military stop them...you see?"

Edward nodded. Things were worse than he had imagined,

"There was an explosion the other day in a town that didn't think much of the military to begin with," the colonel continued. "Just a little one, on the train line running though town. The rails lay damaged for days, and apparently when the military _did _come, the officer in command had a real attitude. The whole thing ended in a big fistfight. That town was pretty small, and the whole economy depended on being able to ship goods from there to larger towns. Three days without rail service left the whole place in a pretty grim mood." Roy sighed. "We haven't had anything quite like that happen in East Area, but when people hear we're with the military, we get out share of dirty looks."

"Thus the civilians clothes," Edward said.

"Traveling with just the two of us, we wouldn't be able to do much if people started complaining. And if it came to blows, well, fighting back would just make the military look worse. I figured it makes more sense to lay low and avoid ruffling any civilian feathers."

"Sounds like things have been rough all around," Alphonse put in.

"A bit," Roy agreed. "We've got out regular work to deal with, some abductions and bank robberies, and then there's the terrorists. You can see why I wanted a little pleasant conversation," he said with a glare at Edward.

"Sorry 'bout that," Edward said, trying to keep from grinning.

The four walked on, leaving the marooned train behind in the distance. Ahead of them, the rails stretched on as far as the eye could see, until they disappeared in the rolling dust.

"You know," Edward said, looking up at the dust trails the explosion had sent up to float lazily through the sky above them. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

* * *

**A/N:** **Hello! I have been absent from writing fanfiction for years now. I am now just a reader. Use to love Bleach and wrote for it (My stories suck. Don't read them) when I still loved the series. I do not anymore. I slowly started losing interest as the series kind of went downhill, it didn't help that I started watching other animes/mangas that honestly had waaaayyy better writing. Watching them made me realize how downhill Bleach went after the Soul ****Society Arc. While I wish I could go back to finishing my crappy stories because while I do know I had people who for some reason liked them, I know whats its like loving a story and then the author never finishing it. I was hoping to never do that but Bleach is honestly dead to me, the ending flat out just made me lose all interest in it completely. I still read the occasional fanfiction, but I don't really check on their fandom anymore for any new stories.**

**Anywayssss onto why I am suddenly publishing this story. I love Fullmetal Alchemist, it is an amazing story. I enjoyed both series immensely, while the 2003 series diverted from the manga I personally feel like the 2003 series is one of those rare animes that didn't do bad for diverting. I've seen many animes where they diverted and IT. WAS. JUST. TERRIBLE. So I praise the 2003 series for not doing that bad.**

**So for anyone that is new to the fandom and has only watched one of them, I encourage you to watch both series and to read the manga. I recommend watching the 2003 first before watching Brotherhood (2009 series). I recommend this for two reasons:**

**1\. The 2003 series does have a few parts that were in the manga that Brotherhood did not include. Apparently the reason why was because since they decided to remake the series they felt like fans would quickly lose interest if they repeated things. I read this way back so I can't remember all the details I just remember it had something to do with not wanting to repeat things. Best way I can compare their reasoning is like when studios remake films. (Forgetting the updated graphics, different actors etc) While the core parts or concepts are repeated its still not an exact clone.**

**2\. Obviously Brotherhood is way better XD FIGHT ME! So its a great experience watching the 2003 series and thinking "Wow, wasnt that bad" then you watch Brotherhood and your like "Omg that was such a great story!" So watch 2003 first then watch the 2009.**

**I recommend reading the manga as well because you would be surprised what small and big parts were either skipped or tweaked in both series. Their is a few I wish they didn't skip :'(**

**If anything read the manga first. When I found out why the 2009 series didnt repeat a few things, it still bugged me because its not like 2003 series followed the manga as well. An example being (SPOILER) while the train fight (2003) did happen in the manga, when it happened, who was included and the aftermath were different in the manga. The train fight did not happen in the 2009 series. So I found that a stupid excuse.**

**Ok so now to my reason. I recently got back into FMA again, I've been watching random eps from both series as well as reading the manga. Don't know what suddenly got me back into the fandom. I mean I never left the fandom but I suddenly became more interested in it as if I was still new to it. So I didn't know there was light novels to it, frankly I feel stupid for not looking into it when I first started because usually mangas have light novels. Any who, my favorite pairing is the parental!royed. I find it adorable and nothing will ever change my mind about it. Found out through tumblr about one of the light novels that fans of the pairing just loved. I couldn't find any upload of the full story online so I ended up buying it and loved it. I felt like I should share it with people who either can't buy the book or never even heard of it. So after reading it I immediately went online and started typing this up.**


	2. The Odd Terrorists

**A/N: So here is chapter 2. While I was hoping to finish this in parts through the week, this week has been nothing but exhausting. Doesnt help that I have been suffering from insomnia so I spend my nights tossing and turning trying to sleep, so typing this up was the last thing on my mind. So I started this last night, when I realized that the end of the week is approaching and I've made no progress. So my bad.**

**As a reminder, this is all written down word for word from the light novel, so I take no credit other than just taking the time to put this up.**

**Please do drop a review though. It would help a lot to know if this was actually catching people's interests. I'm sadly the type that seriously needs motivation to get things done XD :(**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Abducted Alchemist

They walked for almost two hours, got on another train, and then a car, and by the time they arrived at Eastern Command, it was already near dusk.

Roy invited Edward and Alphonse in for a hot drink, but when the two brothers saw Eastern Command, they were stunned: it was all they could do to stand before the doors, mouths agape.

Eastern Command was in utter chaos. Voices squawked over CB radios. MPs with their hands full of documents rushed to and fro. Roy, back in uniform, was buried in work in a flash, promises of a cup of tea forgotten.

"Colonel!" a man carrying a stack of documents like a baby in his arms called out to Roy as he walked through the door.

"Over ten groups are claiming responsibility for the terrorist bombing three days ago."

"Eliminate all the ones that are obviously lying. Investigate the rest," Roy replied without slowing down.

"Colonel!" someone else shouted. "The guards at the gate are having to act as PR for the local residents. They want more men."

"Fine. Just don't put any hotheads out there. We need people who can stay cool and collected. Things are crazy enough as it is."

"Colonel, we received word that the commission on renovating the waterways are short on their budget."

"Send it to accounting in Central."

"Colonel, the letter for you from Central. They call it 'encouragement,' but it sounds more like they're complaining again."

"I already went and talked to them! Make a paper airplane out of it or something."

Roy barked commands out of the side of his mouth, as he waded through the roiling sea of people and finally sat at his desk, hidden behind a towering stack of untouched correspondence.

Edward and Alphonse looked at each other.

"I think we can forget about out hot drink," Alphonse whispered.

"Man, leave a place for a few days, and look what happens," his brother replied, rolling his eyes.

"Let's stay out of their way."

"Good plan."

Edward and Alphonse decided to say good-bye to Roy and then get out of Eastern Command while the getting was good. While they stood outside Roy's office, waiting for the right time to talk to the busy colonel they heard a voice call out behind them.

"My, if it isn't Edward and Alphonse," said a woman's voice. "Long time no see."

The two turned to see Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye standing before them.

With her long blood hair tightly bound behind her head, her already sharp features stood out even more. She was the epitome of cool composure. In her function as Roy's right-hand woman. Edward had never seen Hawkeye betray the slightest hint of emotion, whether anger or happiness. Still, and this alone saved her from being widely disliked by the men working under her. It did not save her, however, from the occasional joke about scary Lt. Hawkeye.

"Good evening, boys."

"Evening, Lieutenant."

She favored them with a thin smile from above the stack of documents in her arms.

"I heard from Second Lieutenant Havoc that you had quite the time getting back here. You must be exhausted. Feel free to use the break room if you want to take nap."

"Oh, I couldn't," Edward replied with evident weariness.

"Not with everyone so busy..."

They were exhausted. After the long, fruitless hunt for the Stone, and then the long walk on the way home, their bodies were worn out. Edward could have gone to sleep where he stood that instant, but the slightest glance into the office reminded how frantically busy everyone was.

"Well, we certainly are busy," Hawkeye said. "I'm sorry I can't stop and chat. Don't take it the wrong way, all right?"

Edward and Alphonse nodded. "Thanks, we won't," Edward said.

"You know where the break room is, right? Take it easy."

"Thank you, good night."

"Night."

The two brothers bowed neatly. She nodded and then disappeared through the open door.

It was the middle of the night before Roy had dealt with the biggest pending issues his staff had thrown at him. He gave his last orders for the day, sat down, and rested his eyes for the first time since their return to Eastern Command. The main office, a war zone up until a few moments before, had finally calmed down, and now only a few on-duty soldiers were still there working.

"Man, I'm tired," he muttered to no one in particular before sprawling out on his desk. The sharp rap of a mug hitting the desktop made him snap upright in his chair.

"Evening, Colonel. Good work you're doing here."

He lifted his bleary eyes to see Hawkeye standing in front of his desk. She pushed the mug of tea across to him.

"Huh?" Roy replied, his eyes focusing. "Oh, thanks, Lieutenant."

"Actually..." She leaned over and handed him a file.

"The report on that case you were asking about."

"Ah. Thanks again." Roy took the file and began leafing through the pages.

Hawkeye watched Roy read intently for a moment before she spoke again. "Are you sure you're doing the right thing?"

Roy smiled. She knew him too well. "You mean, why am I wasting my time investigating an abduction case with terrorists on the loose?"

"Yes. I know you think you know something about it-you've found some key to solving it. But you know what Central would say. If you have time to deal with an abduction case outside your jurisdiction, then spend that time catching the terrorists. Don't they hound you to drop everything else like they hound me? Isn't that why they called you down there today?"

"I guess," Roy said with a shrug. "You know, Lieutenant, I like to think of the folks down at Central as twittering little birds."

"Your commanding officers...are birds?" Hawkeye asked with a raised eyebrow.

Roy nodded. "Birds flying up in the sky don't give a feather about the hustle and bustle down on the ground. You know why? Because they can fly free. Well, I say give them a taste of their own medicine. Why should we care what the birds are thinking? We've got a job to do down here on the ground, and that, my dear Lieutenant, is to catch the ringleader of these terrorists and put an end to this chaos as soon as possible. If I think investigating this abduction case will help with that, I'll put aside as much time for it as I can."

"So you think there's a connection between the abduction and these terrorist incidents?"

"I do." Roy's fingers stopped on a page. "Look at this. First, a retired military officer's son is kidnapped. The kidnappers want eight million sens for his safe return. The parents pay the ransom, and the child turns up, unharmed, a few days later. Next, a wealthy child on good terms with the head of a state research laboratory is taken, and now the kidnappers want ten million sens. Next, the child of an officer with the military who holds a lot of authority in Central is abducted...Cases like this are happening all over the place. And they all have something in common."

"They're all after people connected with the military. The latest kidnapping is from a family in the art trade, but I've heard they donated a lot of money to the military," Hawkeye said, nodding.

"That's right," Roy continued. "And there's another similarity. When the ransom is paid, all the children come back. No deaths, not even any injuries."

"Just like the terrorists," Hawkeye noted, seeing the connection.

"The parents of all the abducted children all have high status. Some with less-than-perfect back records themselves. Since the kids are always returned when the ransom is paid, they haven't been very helpful in tracking down the kidnappers. They pay the ransom, there's a brief investigation, and we get nowhere. And what happens then? The public eye shifts from the unseen, and comparatively benevolent kidnappers, to us. What are we, the keepers of the peace, doing about all this? The utter lack of sympathy from the civilian populace makes our investigations all the more difficult. And there's another kidnapping, and it gets worse. Just like these terrorist attacks."

"Because there are no injuries, people stop blaming the terrorists and the kidnappers and instead vent their frustrations on the military who fails to capture them," Hawkeye said, putting together. "We get all the complaints, and people associated with the military pay all the ransoms." Hawkeye looked away and thought a moment before speaking again. "All this negative PR...perhaps the kidnappers have some reason to dislike the military?"

Roy nodded. "Central thinks there isn't a connection, but I think there is. Small-scale though they may be, the terrorist' capability to place so many bombs in such a short time means they've got considerable funding. And the only large source of funding going to criminal elements right now that I can see is this ransom money."

"Indeed," Hawkeye agreed. "But the children's reports don't match. The kidnappers never look the same. And for that matter, none of the reports of suspicious-looking people seen at the site of the terrorist bombings have matched either."

Hawkeye sighed, then put her hand to her mouth as though she had just realized something. "What if all these different people are being sent by one person?"

Left with no connection between the incidents, the investigation would fall apart. No one could piece those pieces belonged not to many little puzzles but to one big puzzle. It was certainly a possibility. Roy tried to imagine the kind of criminal that would be behind such a master plan.

"We might be up against someone far more powerful than we imagined," Roy said finally, closing the filed with a snap.

The following morning, Edward and Alphonse left the still-bustling Eastern Command and walked through town. Roy came with them.

"Are you sure it's okay to walk around in uniform?" Alphonse asked with a worried glance at the colonel's newly cleaned outfit.

"Well, at least our immediate neighbors don't hate us yet. I try to keep up the relations, you know," Roy said, returning a wave from an attractive woman passing by.

_Keep up relations, indeed_, thought Edward to himself. Roy explained that they had received some complaints, but the situation was nowhere near threatening violence. Nor could the brothers see any tension between the soldiers on guard duty and civilian passerby on the street.

"After the chaos in Eastern Command, it seems quite pleasant out there," Alphonse remarked, his eyes following the people setting up roadside stalls for the day's business. Everyone was going about their morning preparations like any other day. Only the extra guard patrols on the street signaled that things were not entirely as usual.

"It's odd though," Alphonse said. "I mean, I've never heard of terrorists who don't terrify anyone. It almost seems like the military is the only one who really cares about fighting them at all."

The faces they saw as the three walked toward the station held not a trace of fear. People were simply going about their business. The only mention they heard of the bombings came coupled with complaints about haywire train schedules.

"Terrorists targeting the military...You may have something there, Alphonse." Roy's eyes narrowed.

"So," Edward asked. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your company, Colonel? Where's your staff? And aren't you on break now? Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

Unlike Edward, who had spent the night snoring in the break room, Roy had continued working until just before dawn. He was exhausted. The fact that he had been stifling yawns all morning escaped no one.

"I wanted to check something with that art dealer's family regarding their kidnapped child. It's work, but it's outside my jurisdiction. This, I go when I'm off-duty. And I can't take any of my men with me, either. They're too busy."

Edward whistled. He'd never seen Roy work so hard. "You're working up a storm, Colonel," he said with a mischievous grin. "I guess the rumors were wrong."

Roy raised an eyebrow. "You mean that I loaf around? Or that I'm more concerned about my dates than my work? Those rumors?"

So the rampant rumors in Eastern Command had reached Roy's ears. Roy's comment matched Havoc's description to the word.

Edward nodded. "Bingo." He was about to offer to amend the rumors, based on Roy's performance last night and today, but Roy spoke first, cutting him off.

"Don't believe everything you hear. I get work done too, on the rare occasion."

Edward laughed inwardly. Roy was practically confirming that the rumors were true after all.

"Why the sudden silence?" the Colonel asked with a suspicious frown.

"Oh, nothing."

Roy glared at Edward, his eyes demanding an explanation. Edward looked away nonchalantly and thought of a way to change the topic. Alphonse walked up alongside Roy and spoke to him with a tone of hesitation in his voice. "Um, Colonel?"

"Yes?"

"Are you sure it's all right if we continue our research? I mean, you and everyone at Eastern Command seems so busy. And now you're taking on those abduction cases..."

Roy was silent

"Shouldn't we be helping out?" Alphonse asked softly.

Roy smiled at him. "Don't worry about it." Alphonse was a gentle, kind-hearted soul, Roy knew, but the last thing he wanted was to subject him to the grind of these last few weeks in Eastern Command.

"You need to do what you need to do," Roy replied kindly.

"You're still young. Worry about your own problems first."

Even though he had to tilt his head back to look Alphonse in the face, Roy gazed at him like a parent looking at a child.

"I am always amazed by how different you are."

There was no need for him to say to whom he was comparing Alphonse.

"Look. I just don't wanna waste time being nice to people," Edward said with a dramatic scowl. "I do things my own way, got it? Still, if you're coming to us on a bended knee, I suppose we could lend a hand. Of course, then you'd owe me, and you wouldn't want that, now would you, Colonel?"

"See? That's how mean you have to be. Never do anything for free, right?" Roy said, pointing at Edward. Then he smiled at Alphonse. "The only thing I ask of you two is that, should you happen to get involved in another incident like the one yesterday, you help make sure everyone stays safe. It's a big responsibility, but I'm sure you can handle it. Well, actually, I might ask for your help a little later, but only when I'm sure I'm ready to be in this guy's debt." He jerked his thumb at Edward.

"I charge interest, you know," Edward said with a grin.

Roy shrugged. "Why does this not surprise me?"

"Understood," said Alphonse with a smile in his voice. He knew that, in part, the two of them were just playing up their rivalry to make him feel better about not being able to help. "If something happens, I'll be on the job. Whatever it is that I can do."

"Good. Just...don't overdo it okay? I don't want either of you getting hurt."

"Right, sir."

The three stopped at a street corner lined with a fruit and vegetable stalls.

"This is my stop," Roy said, waving to the two. The strong smell of coffee drifted out of a shop nearby. "You two spend so much time off running around that I hardly get a chance to see you. And even if it was just by chance that we did meet-I'm glad for it."

"Me too," Edward said. "Say 'bye to everyone at Eastern Command for us."

"Sure thing." The colonel saluted them.

"Oh, Colonel," Alphonse added. "Thanks for letting us sleep in the break room."

"No problem. Good luck finding your Stone."

"Thanks."

Edward went to return the colonel's salute when an image of the incident on the train suddenly flashed into his mind. He stopped, staring out into space.

"Something wrong?" his brother asked, concern echoing in his voice.

"No..."

That dark silhouette against the field-he saw it again, now, in his mind's eye. An uneasy feeling crept up his spine. He felt like it was right there, watching him, a sneer on its face. Edward shook his head, trying to rid himself of the vision.

"Something the matter?" Roy asked suspiciously, noting Edward's furrowed brow.

"Uh, no, I'm fine. Reall."

_It was just a rock, or a tree, _Edward thought to himself. The train car had been rattling and shaking with the force of the emergency brake-it was ridiculous to think he could've seen someone sneering at them from such a distance.

"It's nothing," he added to the two staring at him.

Edward didn't want to talk about it. He didn't see the terrorist responsible for the blast. It didn't make sense. It was completely impossible. Edward shook his head, trying to clear the fog that suddenly filled his mind.

Now he tried to sort out of why he had suddenly remembered the silhouette in the first place. This was all a big waste of time. Instead of thinking about something impossible, he should think about something that might really exist: the Philosopher's Stone. If they were going to find it, they'd need to keep searching.

"I was just thinking, Al. Let's get going," Edward said, slapping his brother on the back. Just the, they heard an announcer reading a news bulletin from a radio in one of the nearby shops. He sounded excited.

"This station has just received another terrorist warning, and this time, they mean to strike here in our city! It reads as follows: 'Twenty minutes from now, we will destroy the cargo train-loading depot at the station in the Seventh District. We mean no harm to civilians.' I repeat: 'Twenty minutes from now...'"

The three of them stopped in the street and exchanged glances.

"This station has received another warning! All those in or around the depot are asked to please evacuate as quickly as possible. In twenty minutes..."

In contrast to the almost giddy news reporter, the people inside the coffee ship seemed utterly unfazed.

"Again?" they heard one man muttering.

"There won't be any injuries-it's a cargo train," said another, turning back to his newspaper.

Roy, Alphonse, and Edward stood rigid in a state of high alert. The civilians around them might not care about the oddly un-terrifying terrorists, but the three knew that anything could happen. They had no guarantee that the terrorists wouldn't decide they'd had enough of bloodless destruction and go for victims next.

Roy glanced at his pocket watch at the same moment that Edward and Alphonse looked up at the clock tower at the station a short distance away.

"Twenty minutes from now..." Roy said with a excitement in his voice. "That means we can stop this bomb. And the people responsible might still be at the scene!" He began to run. There was no time to call Eastern Command and organize a team. He was the closest to the scene, which meant that he had the best chance at catching the bombers red-handed, and he wasn't going to let it pass him by.

"Al!" Edward shouted.

"Yeah," his brother replied. "Let's go!"

"Excuse me, sir, could you hold this for? Thanks!" Edward called out, throwing his traveling trunk on the ground at the feet of the shop clerk. He and Alphonse took off after Roy.

"I thought I said you didn't have to come with!" Roy shouted when heard the running footsteps behind him.

He didn't look back.

"And I believe I said I do things my own way!" Edward shouted back.

"At least let us help evacuate civilians!" his brother added.

The Elric brothers were not the type to sit back and let things happen without getting involved. Roy swore under his breath. He could tell from the tone of their voices they wouldn't be easily dissuaded. There was no time to argue, and Roy was pretty certain they boys could take care of themselves.

"I don't want you doing anything risky! You follow my orders, got it?"

"Yes, sir!" Edward shouted in response.

"Got it!" his brother echoed.

Before them rose the station. The needle on the clock tower moved visibly.

"Seventeen minutes left!"

Roy ran up to the main entrance of the station and then broke right without slowing. The MPs assigned to guard the station had already begun the evacuation. Edward noticed that the people coming out of the station didn't seem to be in any particular hurry.

"When will all this bother end?" he heard one complaining.

"They give you a press release, and you still can't catch them!?" said another to one of the MPs busily waving people out of the main station building.

_You never know when the terrorists are going to change their mind. _Edward thought. _You always have to be on the lookout._

"I'll help with the evacuation!" Alphonse shouted, running up the nearest staircase into the station.

"Make sure the station personnel get of there too!" Roy shouted back to him

"Al! Be careful in there!" Edward shouted to his brother as he turned to run after Roy.

"You bet! You two keep an eye out yourselves!" Alphonse turned to a couple walking down the stairs. "Please leave the area at once! Orderly and quick, please!" Still calling out, Alphonse disappeared into the station.

Meanwhile, Edward and Roy had been running straight along a plain white wooden wall that seemed to stretch forever from the station. Gone were the streetside vendors and passengers hurrying about the station square. It was dead quiet, save for the sound of their running footsteps.

"Colonel, is this the cargo train depot?" Edward called out to Roy running ahead of him. The wall was just about as high as Edward was tall. He couldn't see to the other side.

The colonel nodded. "It's a little off from the main tracks. Cargo trains that come in off the main rails are sent here to unload. Then they do a U-turn and go back to the main tracks. You can't continue on from here to the main station. It's a dead end," he explained as they ran. "It's a big place. There's at least ten rails in there-even one for military use only."

"Where is the entrance?" Edward asked. He had expected to reach a door, but there was only a featureless wooden wall.

"You have to follow the tracks from the station or go in through the cargo management office a ways up ahead. But there will be people at both of those places. If the terrorists really don't intend to hurt anyone with this bomb of theirs, then they'd likely sneak into the middle here, where there's nothing but trains and cargo containers."

Roy continued running, looking at the wall out of the corner of his eye. "There people aren't the kind to get caught at the scene, so they mean to get out fast, assuming they're still here at all. If they want to get out without being seen or stopped are likely to be milling about. So that makes this section of the wall prime-"

"Ed!" Roy stopped suddenly and waved Edward to stop.

Edward's momentum sent him crashing into Roy's shoulder. Roy grabbed his arm and pulled him down to a low crouch. "What's the big idea?" Edward said, rubbing his arm.

"Shh!" Roy cut him off. He sat hunched on the ground, looking ahead of them and slightly upward. "You see that?'

Edward followed where Roy was looking, until he saw atop the wall ahead of them, a piece of cloth like a white narrow band of silk fluttering in the wind.

"That white cloth?" Edward asked in a low voice.

Roy nodded. "Suspicious, I'd say."

"You think?"

The white cloth looked like little more than a piece of ribbon that had gotten caught on one of the planks of the wall.

"Looks like the wind picked up a scrap of something." Edward hissed.

"It does," Roy responded. "But..." He raised his hand, pointing a finger to the bare patch of skin between his eyebrows. "I got a feeling about it. That's a sign the criminals are using-that's what my sixth sense tells me."

In Edward's experience, soldiers talked a lot about hunches and "sixth senses." Whatever it was, it wasn't anything you could scientifically quantify, and he didn't trust it.

He shook his head. "A feeling, huh?"

"Look, I'm a practical man," Roy said. "Soldiers have to be. But I also know, when your sixth sense tells you something, you'd better listen."

Edward snorted.

"You should trust your own senses a little more, Ed. Your sixth sense is your friend. You can't see, but it's with you your whole life, and it will never betray you. It might not be perfect, but it's worth listening to."

Roy took his eyes off the white cloth and looked at Edward sitting next to him. "If you walk a harder road than most people, the friends that will come with you are few. That's why you have to trust your own feelings even more. Hey, even if you don't believe what your friends might tell you, you should at least give them a listen, right?"

"Friends, yeah," Edward mumbled. He'd been thinking about his own sixth sense after seeing that silhouette in his mind's eye again. He tapped his forehead with his index finger. "I listen to what my sixth sense tells me, but I'm not so sure it's my friend right now."

"Sure it is."

Edward shrugged, and looked back at the white strip of cloth. "So, Colonel, your little friend's telling you that white cloth is suspicious?"

The strip was wrapped around one of the wall posts, fluttering with every gust of wind. Across the road from the cargo loading area stood a line of warehouses for storing cargo. Back toward the station, a few of them had been open, with trucks loading various boxes and goods, but here, they were deserted. Either they were unused or whatever was stored in them wasn't in high demand. There was no one else in sight.

Edward crouched low, following Roy as he made his way toward the white strip of cloth. "Sure is quiet," he remarked in a low whisper.

The sun, still low in the morning sky, reflected in a blinding white light off the sides of the warehouses. Edward squinted against the glare. When he turned, he could see the station far behind them. The people coming out of the main entrance looked incredibly small. The noise of the station grew faint and muted, the sound of a concert heard from far away. It reminded Edward of how quiet it was where they were-so quiet it was hard to imagine that, in just a short while, all hell would break loose.

"Thirteen minutes to boom." Roy said, checking his wristwatch."It's too bad all of our men are busy evacuating civilians. I sure would like a few more to help look for that bomb."

"What if it's a time bomb? They could've set it and escaped a while ago," Edward noted.

"No, they're here," Roy said with some certainty. "Nobody's been harmed in any of the explosions, right? I don't think it's sheer luck, either. I'm guessing for every blast that's gone off with no one around, they've had to stop one or two detonations because some bystander happened on the scene before they could trigger the bomb. Maybe that's why they send warnings so close to the actual detonations. They don't want to give authorities too much time to prepare, because they need someone here checking to make sure no one gets caught in the blast. Someone needs to be here throwing that switch, Ed. Which means they're here. And close by."

Roy stopped in front of the white cloth. "See?" Roy said, pointing with his finger.

"I do indeed. It sounds like your friend is trustworthy, Colonel."

There was a clean gap in the wall where Roy was pointing. Two or three of the wall posts had been removed.

"This is how they've been getting in. They probably prepared it days in advance and tied the strip of cloth up there as a marker."

The two slipped past the gap a little farther and found another gap in the wall. The two cuts were near each other, leaving a slab of wall in the middle supported by posts that someone had stuck diagonally into the ground and propped up against the wall.

Then, from the other side of the wall came the sound of crunching gravel. Edward and Roy exchanged glances then ducked low and held their breath. They heard the crunching sound again and then a voice over the noise. They could barely make out the words.

"Another ten minutes," the voice said.

"Better go without a hitch this time," another voice replied.

Slowly, Edward peeked around the edge of the wall. Through the gap, he saw two men standing a short distance away. There were both looking around, checking for any signs of company. They carried pistols in their hands

"I know those guys," Roy whispered, face pressed up against the wall. "Leftovers from a terrorist group broken up a while ago." He frowned. "They shouldn't have either the weapons or the organization to carry out anything like this anymore. Maybe they've joined up with another group."

"What's our move?" Edward asked. There could be lookouts elsewhere, and the men were armed. It would be dangerous for the two of them to just rush into action. Roy's position as a commanding officer also carried a responsibility not to put himself in danger's path unless absolutely necessary. Edward waited for Roy's answer.

"I'm still on break," he said at last.

What they were about to do flew in the face of protocol, but if they didn't do anything, this investigation would sink deeper into the mire that already trapped it. Part of Roy knew that his men were competent. Even should something happen to him, things would go on as normal at Eastern Command.

"I have to take action now." He looked at Edward.

"I can't ask you to follow."

"Don't tell me not to, Colonel," Edward replied.

"It wouldn't do much good even if I did," Roy said, shaking his head.

"You sure you're okay with this, Colonel?"

Roy's mouth curled into a sardonic smile. "Oh, I'm fine. As long as no one finds out."

"Finds out?"

"Don't want to get called down to Central again."

"Hey, that might not be such a bad thing. We might run into each other on the train again."

"If we do, stay quiet this time, okay?"

Edward grinned mischievously. "Oh, I won't say no more than I have to...Dad."

Roy frowned. "Let's go."

Edward and Roy rose from their positions and headed forward in a low crouch, keeping close to the wall. Through the gap, they could see containers lined up against the wall farther down. The lookouts were behind them, out of sight. The two studied the freight trains in the train yard carefully. The rails ran parallel to the wall, so they could see only the side of the container cars-as far as they could tell, no one was watching from that side.

Roy put his hand on the wall to check that it was sturdy, and in one swift motion, he jumped and pulled himself over. Edward jumped up behind him and down on the other side. The two fell into a crouch and sat silently. They heard no one coming. Roy shuffled over to one of the containers and peered around the corner. Edward scanned the side of the nearest freight train.

The sun shone on the gravel and dirt in the train yard, blanching the whole depot in a white glare. The air rippled in the heat rising from the tracks. The freight train nearest them was loaded with steel and wooden container cars, spaced just far enough apart to give a glimpse of the tracks beyond. They couldn't see much. From the other side of the container they hid behind, they could hear the _crunch, crunch, crunch _ of one of the lookouts walking across the gravel.

Roy pulled back and looked at Edward.

"We'll have to distract him until we can run between two of those cars on the freight train."

"Running across the gravel will make quite a bit of noise."

"I know."

The two thought for a moment, then as one, they looked down at the gravel beneath their feet.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Primitive, but certainly the easiest thing to do with what we have on hand," Roy said, squatting down and picking up a rock.

"Which of us you think has the better arm?"

"When was the last time you played ball, Colonel?"

"Ten years...nah, longer ago than that."

"I played last year."

"Then take the mound, pitcher."

Roy passed the stone in his hand to Edward and stepped back,

"So, we want the lookouts going toward those containers on the other side of the train?"

"Think you can make it to those steel boxes between the tracks?"

Edward took a few practice swings with his hand, warming up his shoulder.

"Leave it to me."

Edward raised one leg and held the hand with the stone poised behind him. Roy grabbed hold of his waist so he wouldn't lose his balance with the throw and fall on the gravel.

"Here goes!" he said in a loud whisper. Edward's arm snapped forward. A whizzing noise cut through the air as the stone disappeared into the blue sky. Several seconds later, there was a loud, satisfying "bonk" across the yard.

"What was that?"

"Over there!"

One of the lookouts walked away from the wall, disappearing between the cars of the freight train, and the other readied his gun and walked back and forth, trying to see between the cars at the yard behind. Edward and Roy took their chance and ran between two of the container cars on the nearest train. They made a light sound as they ran across the gravel, but it was lost in the noise of the lookouts' own footsteps.

"Good arm," Roy said, catching his breath.

"You had doubts?"

"Hey, what was that sound?" they heard a voice say. It was coming from farther toward the middle of the freight yard.

"Maybe just some goods shifting in one of the containers? Happens a lot," they heard another voice respond from close by. "Just press that switch when the time comes. And keep an eye out!"

"I know, I know!" replied the first voice. It sounded as though it was coming from farther back in the yard.

Roy peered in the direction of the voice. "That rail back there, that's the one they use for military freight."

"So that's where they placed the bomb. You sure it's safe to go in closer?"

"Not at all-we don't know where that bomb is. But I need to know how well armed these terrorists are and how many of them are operating. Let's get as close as we can without getting _too _close. And if we can stop this blast, let's do it."

The two left their hiding spot between the container cars and ran to a gap between the cars. Roy crawled under the bed of the train and scanned the yard, counting the lookouts he could see.

"And there's number seven. Not wearing any markings," Roy said, his eyes on the nearest lookout. "The first two were wearing colors, but not from the same group. What's going on here?"

When not trying to blend into the general populace, the armed groups the military dealt with typically wore markings to identify themselves. It was a matter of pride with most groups, a way of claiming a sort of twisted legitimacy. The markings appeared on their weapons, sewed onto their clothing, everywhere. None of the men they had seen here so far shared the same markings. However, from the way they were acting, they certainly belonged to a single organization now.

"If my theory is correct, this is real bad news," Roy muttered, remembering his discussion with Hawkeye the night before. He swore under his breath. Roy had been the one to suggest they might be up against someone tougher than they had realized, and he knew what kind of problems they would face if his guess turned out to be right.

From a short distance away, Edward called out to him in a low voice. "Colonel, over here."

Roy walked over. Edward was crouching down, pointing beyond the nearest train to space between the rails. "Look at that."

Two large automobiles were parked out on the gravel in the middle of the depot. The cars had no roofs, leaving the seats fully exposed. The thick wheels looked well suited for driving on rough terrain.

"Tough-looking cars," Edward said, sounding impressed. The two looked down the train. There was no one in sight. Tiptoeing over to one of the vehicles, they looked inside and gasped.

A pile of weapons had been stowed behind the front seat. Roy picked one up. It bore the symbol of a terrorist organization that had been put out of operation several years before. Beside it were handguns, rifles, even grenades. Some seemed well used; others seemed rather expensive for a terrorist organization to be using. Others displayed the marks of different groups.

"Why would all these terrorists work together? What do they want?"

Just then, they heard several footsteps coming from the next track over. Roy and Edward sprinted back to the safety of the train behind them and crouched down out of sight.

"Get ready to pull out. The troops are on their way gentlemen. Let's go quick," said a loud voice. Four men appeared from between two of the container cars on the far freight train and got into the first vehicle. From the far side of the train Roy and Edward hid under, four more men came running up and got into the second vehicle. Seven lookouts and the new man, their leader. Roy committed their faces to memory.

"We're out of here!" said the leader. At his signal, the cars backed up to the edge of the rails and drove off at considerable speed over the gravel toward the wall where Edward and Roy had come into the yard.

Moments later, they heard the wall section collapse, confirming Roy's suspicions as to its purpose. When they first discovered the two cuts in the wall-and the sticks supporting it-he was unsure, but when he saw the cars, it all made sense. All they had to do was drive headlong into-and through-the wall at high speed, and they'd be on the open road in no time.

Roy checked his wristwatch.

"Seven minutes left."

"Think we can stop the bombs?"

"If we can't, we need to get out of here."

The two broke into a run. Jumping in between container cars and sprinting over the stretches of gravel between the rails, they soon reached the train line at the far side of the depot yard. The containers on the train bore the name of a factory that produced weapons and equipment for the military.

"Here it is!" Edward shouted from where he crouched on the far side of the train. A long, rectangular box was attached to the steel framework under the train bed.

Roy peered at it intently. The bomb was on short timer, beneath which sat a long, thin bag that held the explosives. They appeared to be tied into a bundle.

"You familiar with these, Colonel?"

"Yes."

Roy examined the box a short while longer, then put his hand on one of the cables running from the timer to the bag, and, without a moment's hesitation, yanked it out. The timer stopped, and the two breathed a mutual sigh of relief.

"The charge in this bag isn't very much. Not much more than they'd need to take out small section of the rails. Guess they really didn't want to risk injuring someone."

Roy pulled the bag away from the timing mechanism and separated the charges into separate cylinders, speaking while he worked. "They seem incredibly well armed, yet they don't attack anyone directly. They place bombs and then weaken them to lessen the damage. What are they up to?"

Edward shook his head. "Maybe they just want to shake things up a little-not do any real damage."

"So lingering terrorist elements are getting together, making the news, getting their revenge on the military?"

Roy muttered as he placed the charges down on the gravel. The look on his face said he didn't buy it. He could almost picture the remnants of several dismantled groups coming together to get their revenge. But everything was so well planned. There had to be someone calling the shots, but what was it that they wanted?

"We have to look into this further," Roy said, dusting himself off. He looked at Edward. "Thanks, Ed. We've got a little information out of this."

"And we stopped the bomb."

"That we did. And most importantly, we didn't get hurt, and Central is none the wiser."

The terrorists might have gotten away, but they had seen their faces, their weapons, and how they set their bombs. All in all, the day had been quite a success.

From the station, they heard someone barking orders over a loudspeaker. Apparently the evacuation was complete and the military operations had begun.

"Team one, seal of the north side!"

"Get the bomb squad in there, now!"

Edward listened to the sounds in the distance and yawned. "Maybe it's time for us to head out and continue our search."

"I'm going back to base," Roy said.

The two stepped across the gravel back toward where they had entered, when a dark shadow fell across their feet. For a second, the two couldn't comprehend why the blindingly white gravel they were walking across suddenly darkened to gray. They looked up to see the silhouette of an enormous man looming on top of the train next to them, blocking out the sun.

Edward swore under his breath. This train yard with its containers lying silently on their train beds was as quiet as a graveyard, and with the bomb safely dismantled, they had let their guard down. The two on the ground and the man on the train noticed each other at the same time.

"Oh, what's this? Came back for something, and I've found myself two rats. Never seen a rat with blond hair before," the man said from his perch on the container car. "Let's see," he continued, without a trace of tension in his voice. "One of these rats is a military man, and the other one looks to be...a child. Quite the combination."

Roy and Edward stood dumbfounded. They would have expected a terrorist found at the scene of the crime to be a little more flustered, but this man seemed perfectly at ease. Edward squinted against the sun to get a better look at him. He was a giant of a man, with thick arms and legs. Yet he must have climbed atop the container car next to them without making a sound, meaning he was frighteningly agile as well.

The man turned and let the light hit his face. A shock of dark hair crowned his head and he sported a thick beard. Roy realized it was the leader from the car they had seen a moment ago.

"This rat smells a terrorist," Roy said, his body tensing. The man continued as though he hadn't even heard him. He was looking at the explosives lying dismantled on the ground.

"I go through all that trouble to place my bomb, and you come along and wreck it. Hardly civil."

"Gael! What are you doing?" came another voice from behind the train he was standing on. "I found that gun you left."

The one called Gaeul turned around. "All the way over there?"

Edward and Roy stood in stock. The man had turned his back on them. They could have been brightly colored rocks on the ground, and he would have paid them more attention.

Roy was the first to remember his duty. "Wait, you!"

"Roy's shout brought Edward to his senses.

"Don't move!" Roy shouted, drawing his pistol.

Gael turned and sneered at the two. "We'll be leaving now!" he said, jumping down behind the container car just as Roy raised his gun.

"To the other side!" Edward began to run around the end of the train when a singly loud _boom_ sounded from the train they were standing under. The two froze. It sounded like something huge had rammed into the container car from the other side.

Echoes from the impact reverberated through the freight yard when Edward and Roy noticed something highly unusual about the container car in front of them. It was moving.

"Huh!?" Edward gaped.

The container was huge, with a frame of solid steel. It couldn't move.

They heard raucous laughter coming from the other side.

"This is what you get for meddling in other people's affairs!" Gael shouted from the other side. The container lurched and began to topple toward Roy and Edward.

"No way!"

Gael must have pushed the container from the other side. But that was impossible.

"Run!" Roy shouted, finally realizing what was happening, and he scrambled away from the tracks. There was a hair-raising screech of twisting metal, and a tremendous vibration shot though the ground as the container slammed into the gravel behind them.

Edward was the first to stand, coughing and wiping the dust off his pants. "I don't believe it!" he gasped.

"How strong is he!?"

A wall of dust rose up behind them, blocking their view of the fallen container car. By the time the echoes of the crash had faded and the dust had settled, Gael was nowhere to be seen.

The steel container car lay on its side on the ground, and all Edward and Roy could do was stare at is in disbelief.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! **

**Due to the chapters being long and me doing this within a short time XD this might be longer than 5 chapters. I might just break these up into two parts so that I'm not stressing out about getting these done in time**


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